READ THIS FIRST (and maybe some of this will make sense)

From the time I was 12 years old until I graduated from high school I ran a paper route in my hometown.  At 14 I graduated from delivering papers on a "Flying O" bicycle with a banana seat and hi rise handlebars to a motorcycle.  It was a Sears Allstate Sport 60cc made in Austria by Puch. 

Courtesy Sheldon's EMU at cybermotorcycle.com

Over the next 10 years I rode a string of motorbikes increasing in size until I landed on a Kawasaki Z-1.  But then came kids and a career.  I sold the Z-1.

After the kids graduated from high school, I went back to riding and back to Kawasaki on a Ninja 650.  Since old Route 66 was nearby, I started riding and researching 'The Mother Road'.  

When you research Route 66, you find Cyrus Avery. 

Cyrus Avery 

And when you find Cyrus Avery, you find the Ozark Trail.  

HERE'S THE STORY -

Before the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1925 created the United States Highway System there were “good roads committees” scattered across the country. Often these committees would band together in associations to enable travelers to follow standardized routes from state to state. These were the 'named highways'. Some were coast to coast like the Lincoln Highway and the Old Spanish Trail. Some were regional auto trails, like the Ozark Trail.

Most of these named trails were championed by a single individual. For the Ozark Trail it was William Hope Harvey, author, financial theorist and one time presidential candidate.

In 1901 Harvey built a large vacation resort near Rogers, AR, that he named "Monte Ne". 

In 1914 the railroad that serviced Harvey’s resort went bankrupt and was abandoned. Harvey decided the only way to continue to get people to his resort was to promote automobile travel. 

He formed and promoted the Ozark Trail which radiated out from Rogers ultimately linking cities and towns from St. Louis to Roswell, NM.

The vice president of the governing body of the Ozark Trail was Cyrus Avery, Tulsa businessman and good roads promoter.  Later, as a member of the board appointed to create the Federal Highway System, he helped create Route 66 using many of the roads that were part of the Ozark Trail.  Thus, Avery is referred to as the father of Route 66. 

TODAY

Remnants of the Ozark Trail can still be found. Seven trail markers, 21 foot tall concrete obelisks, remain in Stroud and Langston, Oklahoma; in Dimmit, Wellington, Tulia and Tampico, Texas and in Lake Arthur, New Mexico. 

Tulia, TX

There are also old roadways, both paved and unpaved, old bridges and even the remains of Monte Ne. 

The Ninja 650 quickly gave way to a Kawasaki Concours 14, then a Harley Davidson Street Glide and now a BMW R1200RT.  Why the Ozark Trail and why on a motorcycle?  I liked how Alton Brown, TV Chef, put it in his commentary in the 'Bonus Material' of the first “Feasting on Asphalt”-

“Trips like this aren’t finished.  And they don’t always have a direct purpose.  You just do it.  You eat what you eat and that’s that.”

WALTZ ACROSS TEXAS

There are less than 200 miles between Wellington, TX and Dimmit, TX.  In between are 4 of the 7 remaining original mile markers from the Ozark (Auto) Trail.  But there are 5 OTHER reasons to ride those 200 miles which gives me 9 reasons (and counting) to go back.

Reason One - The tamales at Galvan’s in Turkey, TX. 

Yes, the home of Bob Wills is also home to the second best tamales in the universe.  (The best are at Joseph’s in Santa Rosa, NM.  But that’s another trip.)  The first time I pulled in to Galvan’s it was late in the afternoon and I was hungry.  I asked if the tamales on the menu were handmade.  The waitress smiled and said “yes”.   Worth the trip.

Reason Two - Caprock Canyon State Park.  

I’ve spent many nights backpacking in New Mexico, and Colorado and this little park a couple of miles north of Quiteque rivals most of them.  On my first visit I rolled in just before dark along with a Gold Wing who’d ridden from Kingfisher, OK.  He said he just needed to get away for the weekend.  There was no cell phone signal and it was dead quiet except for a chuck-will’s-widow calling in the distance.  [A chuck-will’s-widow is a night hawk from the same family as a whippoorwill.  And, like the whippoorwill, is named after the sound of it’s call.]  That night, when the stars came out, they ALL came out.  It was so dark you could see the milky way!  Worth the trip.

Reason Three - Tampico, TX - It was an oil boom town in the 1920s.  Now it's a ghost town.  It’s 10 miles east of Turkey and a mile south of the highway.  Keep an eye peeled for the small "Historical Marker" sign or you'll blow right past it and never know it. If you look, you can see the foundations of the old stores on the south side of the dirt road that  runs west of the OT marker.  

An original Ozark Trail marker in it’s original location on the dirt road Main Street of a ghost town.  Worth the trip.

Reason Four - The old train station in Tulia and the brick street in that runs east all the way to the OT marker on the town square.  

You can stand at the depot and imagine what it was like arriving by train and heading in to the center of town. The OT marker in Tulia is in it’s original location and is my favorite of the remaining original seven.  Brick street. Town square.  Train depot.  Worth the trip.

Reason Five - The People.  

Like the waitress at Galvan’s. Or the hunter who helped me lift my motorcycle that had fallen over while I was kicking around Tampico.  Or the guy in Dimmit who saw me taking pictures of the OT Marker on a Sunday morning and stopped and offered to go get the keys to the local museum so I could see more local OT memorabilia.  Or the two overnight clerks at the Allsups in Quiteque (pronounced kitty - kway) who sold me soda and cookies or the staff at the Caprock Canyon park office who made me feel welcome anytime.  There’s good people along those 200 miles.  Worth the trip.